How to Justify Buying the New $1,000 iPhone X, in One Chart

How to Justify Buying the New $1,000 iPhone X, in One Chart

Buying a cup of coffee every day could be twice as expensive as the daily cost of your iPhone.

Customers look at their iPhones inside the Apple store on 5th Avenue in the Manhattan borough of New York City, July 21, 2015. (REUTERS/Mike Segar)

Compared to your daily cup of coffee, getting the new iPhone X might seem like a big investment.

Buying a cappuccino at Starbucks, for example, will run you about $3. That seems like nothing compared to the $699 starting price for the iPhone 8, or the iPhone X’s $999 price tag.

Unless, that is, you break the cost of your iPhone down by day.

In the US, the average smartphone owner keeps their phone for 22.7 months — about 690 days — before upgrading.

That makes the cost of the iPhone 8 a little more than $1 a day, after factoring in sales tax. Even if you upgrade every year using Apple’s iPhone upgrade program, the daily cost is only a few cents more.

Still, most people spend 70% of their budget on more expensive costs, like housing, transportation, and food. But cutting back in a few key areas could help you maximize the amount of money you’re saving today.

That’s not to say that coffee has to go, but taking a different view of your spending habits can better inform the decisions you make.

The value you get for your phone almost certainly exceeds that of your cup of coffee. (Skye Gould/Business Insider)

Is Facebook Wasting its Time Trying to Connect Africa?

Okay, I’m going to go out on a limb here. I’m betting that when you hear the word “Africa,” the image that pops into your head is something like this.

And you think, what can possibly be the point of Facebook here. Am I right?

If so, you need to let go of that image. Behold modern Africa:

Africa is fast becoming increasingly urbanized and increasingly modernized. There are already hundreds of millions of Africans on the Internet. Telecommunications is expanding faster in Africa than anywhere else on the planet. Huge capital outlays are being made to bring wireless communications to Africa.

In the next decade, internet usage in Africa will explode. The first companies past the gate are likely to be incredibly successful. If you’re an Internet company whose revenue model depends on an ever-increasing user base, you would be incredibly stupid and shortsighted not to invest in Africa.

This response to a question on quora originally appeared on quora by Franklin Veaux, a technology enthusiast, mad engineer, and tech startup founder.

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg Reveals He’s No Longer an Atheist

The Facebook founder, who formerly identified as an atheist, revealed last week that religion has come back into his life in a holiday post.

He posted a short message on Facebook wishing his followers a: “Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah from Priscilla, Max, Beast and me!”

One of his devout fans questioned his religious views, writing in a comment, “Aren’t you an atheist?”

And Zuckerberg responded.

“No. I was raised Jewish and then I went through a period where I questioned things, but now I believe religion is very important,” he wrote.

Zuckerberg’s wife is a practicing Buddhist, which he has taken interest in. He even said a prayer in front of the Wild Goose Pagoda — a Buddhist landmark in Xi’an, China — during a 2015 visit.

“Priscilla is Buddhist and asked me to offer a prayer from her as well. Buddhism is an amazing religion and philosophy, and I have been learning more about it over time. I hope to continue understanding the faith more deeply,” he wrote in a post that included a photo of him kneeling in front of the pagoda.